The Design Museum puts the UK’s geological landscape under the microscope in Mineral, a free display rethinking how we design for the green transition. Commissioned by the museum’s national research programme, Future Observatory, in partnership with the UKRI Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC), it showcases four research projects centred on four mineral-based materials native to the British Isles: lithium, silica, chalk and copper.
This year’s Design Researchers in Residence — Alfred Yatlong Yeung, Rafael El Baz, Rosa Whiteley and Elise Limon — have each connected with local communities across the UK, recasting minerals not as passive resources but as materials whose extraction has deep social, economic and environmental impacts. Projects range from the reopening of a Cornish lithium mine and Sunderland’s glass-making heritage to chalk aquifers and the afterlife of copper mining in north Wales.
The display opens with LaTigre’s ‘Mineral Map’ of UK deposits, with a graphic identity by An Endless Supply and an exhibition design by Mitre & Mondays built from quarry stone offcuts and reusable materials. A free accompanying publication features essays by and interviews with the residents.
Free display, on Level 2 in the Design Researchers in Residence Studio.
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